DNA Pioneer Watson
Resigns Lab Post

Recent Remarks
Ignite Controversy,
Precede Departure

By

Gautam Naik

Updated Oct. 26, 2007 12:01 a.m. ET

In one of the most famous opening sentences in scientific literature, James Watson noted in his 1968 book, "The Double Helix," that he had never seen his colleague Francis Crick "in a modest mood." A similar kind of brashness now appears to have undone Dr. Watson.

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Dr. Watson -- who co-discovered the structure of DNA and thereby helped launch the genetics revolution -- said yesterday that he would no longer serve as the chancellor of the prestigious Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, an institution he has been associated with for more than four decades. The 79-year-old scientist said he would "retire" with immediate effect following an outcry over controversial remarks he recently made in the United Kingdom media about the intelligence levels of blacks.

It is an unexpected and ignominious end to one of the most illustrious careers in modern science. Dr. Watson, who shared the Nobel Prize in 1962 with Mr. Crick and Maurice Wilkins for their DNA discovery, recently told Britain's Sunday Times that he was "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours -- whereas all the testing says not really."

Dr. Watson later apologized for those and other remarks, noting that such claims have no scientific validity. But the damage had been done. After the comments were widely condemned, Dr. Watson was forced to cancel a book tour in the U.K. and return home. By the time he did, his employer had already suspended him of his administrative duties.

"They're not the circumstances we'd like. But all the positive things he's done will far outweigh those statements," said the president of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Bruce Stillman. He noted that Dr. Watson had been a good administrator and fund-raiser for the private nonprofit who recruited talented scientists to CSHL -- some of whom went on to win Nobel Prizes of their own.

Dr. Stillman said he and others at the lab had had "discussions" with Dr. Watson in the past, when he had made other controversial remarks in public. "It's been pointed out to him that if a scientist makes these comments, they have to be based on scientific fact." Dr. Stillman said. He added that Dr. Watson is "nearly 80 years old -- one has to be sensitive to that. He's suffered a lot for these remarks."

He declined to discuss details about a board meeting on Wednesday, when Dr. Watson announced his decision to retire.

In a statement yesterday, Dr. Watson said that, given his age, it was time to hand over the reins of his leadership of the lab. Yet he acknowledged that the circumstances of his departure "are not those which I could ever have anticipated or desired."

Steve Jones, a British geneticist, believes that it is Dr. Watson's unyielding and risk-taking approach that has made him such a successful scientist. Referring to how Dr. Watson homed in on the structure of DNA -- the famous double helix -- Dr. Jones says: "You need a certain kind of personality to make the totally unexpected connections" on which such breakthroughs are based.

By the time he was awarded the Nobel, Dr. Watson had joined Harvard University and, while there, became director of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on New York's Long Island. Dr. Watson took a financially troubled lab and turned it into a hotbed of genetic research where scientists discovered key aspects of the molecular nature of cancer and identified cancer genes for the first time.

In 1988, Dr. Watson was named head of the Human Genome Project at the National Institutes of Health but quit after conflicts with the NIH's new director in 1992. In 1994, he was named president at Cold Spring Harbor.

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